Online Training During Downtime (Trinnov and others)

[Mike Babb]

It seems I know a lot of people like myself who suddenly have a little more downtime. I am hoping to use some of that downtime for learning, for myself and to make the same suggestion to my team members. Does anyone know cinema specific online training courses?

I am offering training for interested parties who find themselves installing Trinnov Ovation 2 processors, or are likely to in the future. I can also do a condensed training for people who are interested in general. Below is the text from an email I have been sending to installers:

As a side effect of suspending travel and many commercial cinemas closing, we have had to rethink ways to use our time in the current situation. We have tested and will offer one on one Ovation 2 wizard training to cinema engineers, using our test room in Paris with remote access.

This is how it works:

Mike can connect to our test system in Paris. The engineer can connect to my computer with Google Remote Desktop and “drive” the wizard and VNC menus.

Additional voice communication via Google Hangouts Meet, Skype, phone, Whatsapp or other mutually agreed format.

We are set up to train for 5.1 bi amp, 7.1 bi amp, and additional formats using bi amp surrounds, as well as side and back wall subwoofers.

PM me to schedule a training session. Requirements:

A decent internet connection
Google Remote Desktop for Chrome plug in
Google Hangouts Meet, or another mutually agreed voice app
(the calendar event we send will have a link to Google Hangouts Meet, which works well so far)

[Bruce Cloutier]

Along these lines, while we have not created any official online "training", we are very willing to work with anyone whose has an interest in expanding their knowledge of our products. INTEG has complied with local, state and federal initiatives to disperse the population. We have completely closed our facilities. There is no production nor any shipments. Phones go to messaging. But, both Kevin and Tony are fully available (working remotely) to support issues with our JNIOR products. Our support is free of charge as most of you are already aware. We all have more time on our hands so why not keep some interaction going?

You do not have to have an issue. Feel free to contact them (perhaps chat on the website is easiest to start) with questions even if that is something along the lines of "What else can I do with this thing?". Or, just tell us that you are still here!

The JNIOR is used in many other markets although Cinema is the largest for us. It is not a cinema product but a generic controller. So there is a lot of capability and flexibility to do other things. Something new might later benefit cinema installations. There is a lot you can do without buying another thing.

For instance, did you know that you can easily add a temperature sensor to any JNIOR and remotely access the temperature with no programming or disruption of the other things the unit does? Of course you need a sensor and we can't ship you one for a bit, unfortunately. But not only can you see the temperature but there is an application you can add that logs the temperature and you can bring up plots. We've used this to diagnose HVAC issues even in our office. We put a temp sensor both on the input and output side of the coil for the air conditioner in the air handler. With this we were able to not only see when the a/c was running but how well it was performing. Our problem was that the R22 charge was contaminated and it would work just fine until the roof temperature got high enough to cause it to break down. It was immediately obvious, we evacuated the system and added a fresh R22 charge and there were no more cooling issues. JNIOR to the rescue. You all have cooling concerns.

Find your way to the Knowledge Base on our site (integpg.com or jnior.com which are the same these days). These articles are not hype. Technically, they might be interesting to you. Something there might lead you to have questions. Or, maybe even want to argue.

But if you have time on your hands and want to chat about anything, you should feel free to contact the guys. We really are concerned about all of you and just hearing from you might just help keep us going.

Purchasing people should touch base with Amy via email. Again, just to keep in touch during this crisis.

[Carsten Kurz]

Great offerings. Maybe I get my hands back on our JNIORs in my ample spare time now...

All the best - to everyone!

[Greg Routenburg]

I'm presently working through the Level 1 Cinema Q-Sys training. It's free which was a great feature given that our revenues are non-existant at the moment.

I'd also be interested in a good JNIOR 101. I'm sure there are loads of features that are available that would be great to be able to play with.

I'm also wanting to brush up on my CAD skills over the next couple months and wonder if anyone knows of some good online resources, other than youtube videos, that could be of use. I studied CAD in college some 20 years ago now and a good refresher would be quite helpful.

[Leo Enticknap]

I'm doing the Q-Sys advanced control videos, and if this drags on, am going to start getting to grips with Lua scripting, too. Likewise, I'd also be interested in some online CAD training resources.

[Mike Renlund]

Dolby is providing webinars on several topics.

Previous webinars have been placed online at our Vimeo page: https://vimeopro.com/dolbycinemasupp...oduct-webinars

We have the following webinars coming up:

1. Cinema Products Update: Sound Processors and Imaging Servers

Dolby's Mark Gelin, Ben Cheng, and Reneh Ghaenian, Cinema Products Support Engineers, will discuss products that have recently been Withdrawn From Sale, and future products that will be Withdrawn From Sale.

A question and answer session will be included. Please click on the “Register Now” button below for available times:

Register Now

2. Maintenance During Long-term Theatre Closures and Dolby IMS Docking Station (CAT1743)
We’d like to invite you to a webinar discussing Maintenance During a Long-Term Theatre Closure and introduce you to the new IMS Docking Station (CAT1743), a product that allows for easy charging of the battery in a Dolby IMS without using a projector. Dolby's Mark McGranahan and Mark Gelin, Cinema Products Support Engineers, will discuss these topics and answer any questions you may have. Please click on the “Register Now” button below for available times:

Register Now

3. Dolby Multichannel Amplifier
Dolby's Bill Stroupe, Jose Hughes, and Ben Cheng, our Cinema Products Support Engineers, will present:

• An overview of the product (hardware and software)
• A review of new and upcoming features

A question and answer session will be included. Please click on the “Register Now” button below for available times:

Register Now

If you have any questions, please contact CinemaSupport@dolby.com.

Mike
Dolby Cinema Solutions and Support

[Leo Enticknap]

Thanks Mike. Just registered for the "Things that are/will be withdrawn from sale" webinar. This is a major issue for us (or at least it was, at the time of the shutdown). In particular, and given the feedback we're receiving from customers, we're going to want to at least try to support CP650s and DSS servers and media blocks well into the foreseeable future. Especially CP650s, because there is no alternative solution out there for 35mm audio that doesn't involve a very serious science project. And long-time users of DSS servers just don't want to part with them. Borrowing the aviation industry's maxim that "the only viable replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3," a lot of our customers feel exactly the same way about their DSS100/200/220 servers and media blocks.

Not so subtle hint: if the R & D budget could be justified to come up with a film preamp (A-type, SR, and SR-D) card for the CP950 to go in the option slot as an alternative to the Atmos card, that would make the 950 a very, very attractive proposition for arthouses that are trying to maintain film capability.

[Steve Guttag]

There is probably something to having such a card for the CP950 (like Datasat has for the AP25). There probably isn't a sufficient market, however, to justify the R&D to make/support the card that will probably sell less than 100 pieces worldwide. It would be cheaper to do another run of CP650s, if the chips are still available. That said, I think most ANY cinema processor can be used for a film system (e.g. a CP65). Long term, it is probably the digital audio that may prove the most tricky as proprietary chips may fail and be irreplaceable.

I'm thinking that the likes of Q-SYS could be a salvation for a cinema processor for film. Seriously, other than the noise reduction, it can already do all of the analog stuff. It would probably cost less for them to emulate A and SR Noise reduction than for Dolby to make a new hardware piece. If there really is a use-case, that is where I'd go and in the meantime, there are stacks of Dolby 363s out there that could be used to get genuine Dolby A and SR NR into the system (and out). At that point, all that you are left with is the DA20 and/or DTS player for the digitals/70mm. A CORE510c handles what, 256 channels of I/O so there is sufficient means of dealing with film sources based on channel count and a CORE510 costs less than a CP650 by a long shot (and is more on par of a stripper CP65...when it was new). I'm sure QSC has the talent to do the A and SR in software too..they'll just want to know if they put Engineering into software development that it will be a profitable venture (as Dolby would for your CP950 idea).

As for DSS servers, we are 90% full of them. We have are having reasonably good success at keeping them going in their geriatric years. We've seen a fair uptick in motherboard issues in 2019, particularly in X7 MBs but a couple of X8 too. At this time, the only thing that can really take down a DSS server (particularly the 200/220) is the mediablock. If the CAT862 or CAT745 fails (aside from the CAt745 battery failure), then that's it. However, there will come a time when other key parts will just not be obtainable anymore. What we've done to prepare those that are using Show Manager as their TMS is to think of their sites (if they have them) with 3rd Party TMSes (e.g. TCC) to use those DSS servers as donars since a 3rd party TMS can integrate most any server and once you are using a TMS, one rarely touches the actual SMS servers anymore.